Our project partners
mrm² automation technology gmbh
mrm² is a medium-sized company from Merklingen in the southwest of Germany. From technical consulting to mechanical design, electrical design, control programming, electrical assembly, and complete special machines, mrm² offers individual solutions for highly complex projects.
Beyond Gravity Services AG
The Swiss company Beyond Gravity Services AG has been a supplier for the European Ariane launch vehicles since the 1970s - at that time under a different name. In addition to various other product groups, Beyond Gravity manufactures the payload fairing for the latest generation of Ariane rockets.
- The payload fairing protects the sensitive cargo (e.g. satellites) from water, dust, air resistance, and acoustic pressure.
- In orbit, from an altitude of approx. 100 km, these impairments no longer occur. The fairing is therefore jettisoned at this altitude in order to avoid space debris and reduce the weight of the rocket.
- Material damage or tolerance deviations have fatal consequences and cost huge sums of money, so the demands on precision and quality are enormous.
Project description
Project requirements
- High-precision development, production, and control: Tolerance deviations of the fairing parts have a negative impact on the flight characteristics of the launch vehicle, which can lead to a crash.
- System openness: Third-party soft- and hardware must be controlled across the board.
- High-performance technology: Up to 20 axes, synchronized in real-time, must be precisely controlled.
- Accuracy with a component length of up to 26 meters: The two ends of the fairing are 26 m apart and may only deviate from the specifications by 0.02 mm—which is approximately one-fifth of the width of a human hair.
The solution with CODESYS
- CODESYS visualizes machine information and serves as an interface to the operator/developer.
- CODESYS SoftMotion controls the motors of the axes synchronously and precisely.
- CODESYS Engineering is the development environment for the IEC 61131 project.
- Communication via a multi-protocol interface that exchanges data in real time with the various machine modules.
Benefits of CODESYS
- Manufacturer-independent automation software that reliably handles comprehensive control tasks.
- Comprehensive software suite as an end-to-end solution for all automation tasks: from visualization and control to sensor-actuator communication.
- High-performance software for the most demanding production tasks - fast, precise and reliable.
CODESYS products used
Martin Rieg, Managing Director of mrm², talks to Aaron Windmüller, Product Marketing employee at the CODESYS Group, about the space project.